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Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Cheers Alegeeter. Blast from the past and I love it (referring to that skin). I think I'll actually post a proper season update at the end of my current one for a change, it's been an interesting one! Takes me awhile to go through a season though, so you'll have to wait

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Well this is a worrying development; our record in the legaue so far: W1 D2 L5 What's even weirder is that our record in cups and europe stands at W7 D1 L1 with the loss coming on penalties to Man City. I can't think of anything that I've done differently this season comapred to the last couple of years as well...

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Originally Posted by midgetram

About the free transfers; on previous FM games I have a poor record when I spend high transfer fees so I try and limit how much I spend. Also, now that I have a youth academy, I'm trying to get more club-HG players in my squad as well, so there's no need to spend money on other players.

I have a hit and miss record, last year i spent 30 million on a player who was a legend for me and 100 million on another who was a disaster. i've had mostly success on my large buys this season with the exception of 40 million on a CB, but i recouped my money back the next year.
My youth facilities were at good up till this year when they have been upgraded to excellent, the first improvement in 15 years as up till now the chairman didn't feel it was necessary, i have no youth products in my squad, none have ever really progressed to be good enough. I have amazing brazilian wonderkids bought for 2-3 million last season and this

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

I'm having one of those runs too. But it's more the fact we can't break down teams which go ultra-defensive on us but we can pick off anyone who goes attacking on us (bar Man City now ) I guess it's just something to do with the way the team is set-up but we tend to control most of the games so I'm half stumped...

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Originally Posted by midgetram

I'm having one of those runs too. But it's more the fact we can't break down teams which go ultra-defensive on us but we can pick off anyone who goes attacking on us (bar Man City now ) I guess it's just something to do with the way the team is set-up but we tend to control most of the games so I'm half stumped...

That's the problem I've had in recent seasons, nearly everyone plays with a flat back 5 against me now that is rather annoying though it was funny seeing Barcelona using it

I tend to use the Work the Ball into the Box touchline shout when we struggle to break teams down, though this season I've also started to use the Drop Deeper one that is proving rather effective - the extra space allows my MCs to find space with killer balls, it also helps that my strikers are deadly when they want to be. Though I do get the occasional game where my team cannot be bothered putting the effort in or just shoot on site regardless of what I tell them to do.

This season my formation has looked more like 2-4-4 rather than 4-4-2.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

That's the problem I've had in recent seasons, nearly everyone plays with a flat back 5 against me now that is rather annoying though it was funny seeing Barcelona using it

I tend to use the Work the Ball into the Box touchline shout when we struggle to break teams down, though this season I've also started to use the Drop Deeper one that is proving rather effective - the extra space allows my MCs to find space with killer balls, it also helps that my strikers are deadly when they want to be. Though I do get the occasional game where my team cannot be bothered putting the effort in or just shoot on site regardless of what I tell them to do.

This season my formation has looked more like 2-4-4 rather than 4-4-2.

My formation is classed as a 4-1-3-2 but in practice its almost a 4-1-5 with my AMC on Advanced Playmaker and both wingers being AML/AMR, so going forward im fine as looking back on games, I've had almost 15+ shots in every game. Its just that around 50% of these are classed as long shots, so the "Work the Ball" might work.

I know what the problem is defensively though, its just that I don't know what I can do to stop my defenders leaving people free at corners for easy headers.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Reading the last few posts makes me realise how much you guys look at the tactical side. I don't think i've ever looked at the opposition formation.
I rely on superior players, the same tactics, good morale and overpowering the other team to win , might be why i am unable to completely dominate on a save in the way people like dafuge do.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Originally Posted by Thebaker

Reading the last few posts makes me realise how much you guys look at the tactical side. I don't think i've ever looked at the opposition formation.
I rely on superior players, the same tactics, good morale and overpowering the other team to win , might be why i am unable to completely dominate on a save in the way people like dafuge do.

I do this. I've never spent a single moment looking at the opponent. I use the same tactic but alter small things depending on the team I'm meeting.

The group stage saw us drawn against Benfica, F.C Twente and Zenit. Although the group looked easy on paper it was more difficult than I thought it would be getting through the group stages. The 1st knockout round saw us drawn against Olympique Lyonnais. Unfortunately for us we couldn't overcome the french side and went out oof the competition early.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Still going with my Tiverton save, after successive promotions from the BSS to Championship the quality of the opposition has finally caught up with us - it's a pretty attritional fight to stay up which is why it's taking me so long - lots of micromanagement and dire but semi-effective football.

We've got a little margin between us and the relegation zone at the moment, but our form is incredibly variable depending almost entirely on the form/luck of the strikers and goalkeeper.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Merthyr Tydfll Season 2 2011/12 BSP - Promotion!!!

Well, the season began with me stating we would avoid relegation, I intended this as a stabilizing year, having not much faith in a good run after barely squeezing out a promotion last year. I looke to indeed go that road when it took me quite a long while to find decent players, but suddenly I had assembled myself a good team, with youngsters McShea, Fitzharris, McGabe and more experienced Brittain, who I all singed last season, suddenly upping their game, charging me in the race for promotion very quickly.

As you can see, I almost missed out in the end, even though I was 8 points away at one point. This was due to waterlogging, and the great FAT run, which unfortunately also include 2 replays. Giving me a very congested schedule at the end, with me needing to sign two players for this year alone to hopefully get rid of some fatigue. And with some players also getting serious injuries, we managed to become champions by a hair.

Next year League 2.. I will see what happens, but bank on mid-table for now.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

SnakeXe's Tiverton Town - Season 5 - 2014/15Story of the Season:With a slightly fortunate (in my eyes) promotion from League One the previous season, I had a job on my hands to strengthen the squad sufficiently to even stay up in the Championship, let alone notch up yet another consecutive promotion.

Some of the signings came off nicely, such as Chris Smalling, who was a rock at the back, as well as Oscar, a former Barcelona trainee who excelled in either fullback position. Others, most notably Milan Jovanovic, failed miserably. Jovanovic was packed off in January, just 3 league goals and a whole host of missed chances later. Another poor signing was Spanish centre-back Samuel, whose only contribution in the 20-odd games he played was to give away numerous penalties.

My biggest decision of the summer was to flog off all our wingers and not replace them. The former action because they were all rubbish, and the latter because I was going for broke with the narrow 4-1-2-3 formation that won us League One.

It seemed to pay off as we made a great start, winning our first four home games. Unfortunately these were matched by losses away from home, a theme which was to continue all season - we only won once on the road.

Once the home wins began drying up it became a very hard slog, hence why it took me so long to finish this season. Micromanagement of tactics and motivation was necessary in order to get any kind of result, and we slipped into the relegation zone after 26 games.

The cups were pretty awful as usual, and I didn't manage to achieve my aim of "not doing awfully" in the FA Cup.

On the bright side, we stayed up (sort of) comfortably, and the new 14,837 capacity Tiverton Stadium opens to Championship football! Hopefully packing that out every week will sort our finances out, as they're dire at the moment.

Next Season:
Can't really expect more than to stay up again, unless I get very lucky with transfers. Ending the season having made a profit will be a good aim I think

5 Most Important Players:
5. Gary Woods GK - He didn't have that great a season, which shows you the paucity of individual brilliance in this Tiverton side, but 13 clean sheets in a side flirting with relegation is not to be sniffed at
4. Oniforos Roushias ST - Could have been more of a goal threat, but still a key member of the side. If he hadn't had as many injury problems perhaps we'd have done a little better
3. Oscar DRL - Quite surprisingly, a player who managed to hit double figures in appearances for Barcelona last season, including one in the Champions League, decided he'd like to head on down to Tiverton when they declined to renew his contract. Can play with either foot, and was our best fullback by a mile on either side
2. Victor Anichebe ST - Last season's January signing was our top goalscorer with 12 goals, and his all-round play was amongst the best in the side. Really excellent player
1. Chris SmallingDC - Probably at least 75% of the reason Woods managed 13 clean sheets was playing behind this guy. He never came close to establishing himself at Man Utd following the move from Fulham, but he's a rock at this level. Don't think he lost a header all season

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Hi all!

Remember this happened after I managed to finish 6th in the Premier League in my first season and qualify for Europe!?

Code:

Originally Posted by ChelseaDaftOH NO!!!People I have messed up my challenge !!!!!!!!!Basically I can't continue as I do not have 4 players trained by the club for four seasons between the ages of 15-21 to be registered for the EUROPA Cup... I did not have any youth set up until this summer when I thought i could build one from there...As a result I cannot carry on!What an idiot! :mad:Going to have to start all over again!! GUTTED!

Well after looking at the advice you guys gave me (thank you by the way) I felt in my heart of hearts that to holiday past the problem would be wrong or cheating maybe. Thats just how I feel about it. So decided I need to do this properly. So started again.

I have had two amazing seasons! Here is the first!

CHELSEADAFT ASHFORD TOWN (MIDDX) SEASON ONE 2010/11 BLUE SQUARE SOUTH -

As usual at the start of this challenge its all about getting rid of the deadwood, people that just will not feature in your side and trying to get hold of freebies as much as you can to have a chance of promotion.

These are my transfers for the first season. The same usual faces that alot of you have bought into your sides yourselves.

After the success I had in my last attempt I decided to stick with my tried and trusted 4-1-2-1-2 formation. Very Rigid, Attacking Mentality, Very Disciplined and More direct passing. I change the passing style of the side to be played more through the middle and change my two full backs to defensive from automatic.

The only in game changes I make are my strikers and their individual roles to suit whoever is playing.

We took eight games to get our act together but when we hit top spot after the eight games we never looked back and won the league easily. Alot easier than I remember the first time. The table proves how dominant we were.

(Here are my personal and profile screens for the beginning of the challenge by the way before I forget)

Here is my squad screen. Here are the individual views of my players this season:

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

I started this season with the youngest squad in the league and by the end had only 9 players over 22. In spite of this the quality of the players meant i was always at the top, with only a slight blip in results after my CL exit, Chelsea came from near relegation last year to chase hard but the title was won on the last game. The reserves were thumped 4-1 by Charlton in the league cup. I easily won the FA cup again, thrashing several premiership sides along the way. In the CL group stages i qualified after 4 games and went into the 1st KO rd tie against Porto with confidence. After a 1-1 draw away i went 1 up in the 2nd leg only for Porto to injure 5 of my players in the match, 3 had to go off. This stopped my team playing well and i conceded an equaliser 5 mins from time before losing on penalties.
Training facilities were improved to the max and youth facilites improved as well. A further improvement was announced at the end of the season. The ground capacity went from 33000 to 41000 and another 16000 seats will be added next year.

The main transfers were out with a few long time players leaving. Tarantino (history) was out of contract and with his high wage demands and declining attributes was let go.Djokic (history) was also sold as he was really a highly paid backup. Morris (history) was sold with the arrival of Robert, Morris was only rate at championship level but was kept on due to being my only youth player although he did put in some good performances and played as many cup games as league games. Parrish was another youth product who did not do enough to get in the team.
With the competition in midfield Villalba (history) became 5th choice and was sold. Harris was sold with the arrival of wonderkid goalie Simon and Marano never improved after arriving as a player with leading prem potential and so has left.
As mentioned above Robert came in along with wonderkids Simon and Bordon

Simon and Paulinho swapped the goalie jersey back and forth dependant on form.
Stojanovic wants to leave and his performances after jan were shocking, may be his last season if the younger players can improve. Frohlich has improved and is now a wonderkid.
At fullback Bartollini is as good as ever and Joyce keeps on improving.
Robertson had a great season scoring a lot from midfield as did Aslan. Fransisco had a large number of assists and spent more time on the pitch than normal. Loader and wonderkid Everton were capable backups. Nogueira was injured for 2 months so Robert had an opportunity to play.
Up front Sergio was out for 5 months but Marini came in and he wasn't missed. Abraham is getting better and better with age and Maza chipped in with a few. Robinson spent the season on loan but came back as my first youth wonderkid.

Star player - Broke the records for both most career league apps and goals during this season and can go on for a while yet.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

After firmly establishing Merthyr as a footballing giant i decided that one of the 10 previously unpromoted teams needed the benefit of my skills. As luck would have it 1 appeared in the form of Stocksbridge (actually 2 as i later realised Buxton had also come up!).
I promptly resigned from merthyr and applied for the stocksbridge job which i got.
With a world class reputation and a description of 'wily old manager' , naturally players will be flocking to Stocksbridge. Stocksbridge have limited facilities at the moment but a balance of 540000 with a transfer fund of 86000 and wages of 4800.
I have opted for a different formation and will using a 442 diamond rather than my prefered flat 442.
My aim will be to establish Stocksbridge at the same heights as Merthyr and indeed overtake them, and also to see whether Merthyr will sink back down the leagues without my guiding hand.

My tactic once more never changed at all in the season and to be fair to Rushden they pushed us all the way till the end of the season with a fantastic points tally themselves, but we were champions!. Our form was a little ropey to say the least in the first half of the season but the final 18 games of the season saw me through as we went 20 games unbeaten including the FA Trophy final as we demolished York.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

I was going to start this before realising Retford United didn't have a chance of getting promoted in 10.0.0. I've just found the 10.0.3 savegame with Retford (thanks a lot jordanswinburn) so I'm going to get started now - manager profile.

Squad - we suffered quite a lot of injuries this season so the squad got rotated quite a lot.

Transfers - big moves in the transfer market as we looked to make a big profit. The two Graham transfers were fees based on goals, of which the Palace one looks likely to pay out. A new goalie was brought in as the young Spanish lad didn't make the grade.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

I'm a bit worried that in two games, Nathan Adams has got four of my five goals - I've only got him on loan for 3 months too. Hopefully I'll be able to get a half decent loan player in January - possibly from Doncaster Rovers (my parent club), if they don't keep rejecting me .

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Just to tell you in my Oxford City save. I didn't do as well as last time and 8 games in I was 11th. The board said if I didn't win at 1st place Farsley I'd be sacked. What a nice way to treat the manager that gave you 2nd last year !!! Tbh I have put them 150K in debt but...

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Canvey Island 2021/22 Report - EPL
one step closer, eventually

3 consecutive top 7 finishes in a row, so surely this was the season to break into the top 4? The media had us as finishing whereabouts we were last season, whilst the pre-season odds also refelcted this.

A truley awful start of the season had us somewhere where we'd never been before, the relegation zone. Only 2 wins out of our first 10 games was more than problematic; however strangely those wins had came vs Man Utd and Chelsea whilst we had been overwhelmed by the powerhouses of Ipswich and Peterborough

Shredding all that I could in January in terms of restless players, our form started to be what I had expected at the start of the season, with only defeats vs Arsenal, Spurs and City coming in 2022. So despite our awful start, we somehow manages to claim 5th spot (our highest finishing position) in the end, probably helped by how close the mid-table was throughout the season.

I know that realistically I should be happy that I took them to penalties, but truth be told they did everything in their powers to give us the win in 90 mins, our failure to break down 10 men eventually being punished.

Slightly fortunate to escape Germany with a win, but should've won the 2nd leg to be honest. Again, we needed to win the home leg as a Rafa Benitez team will always been hard to break-down in a European tie.

Squad (1)(2)
Gradually the numbers are coming down, but that was more as a result fromt the January transfer dealings than anything else.

I wish all of my academy players turn out like he has, but I have a feeling that may be a little bit unrealistic. Still needs to control himself though, the 2 red cards he recieved were both for violent conduct.

Transfers (1)(2) - Again, a load of new troops arrived; once again ones that I didn't need all that much but were, in most cases, slight improvements on what I had previously. With a lot of unrest towards January, I basically tried to sell anyone who a) refused a contract extension or b) was complaining about anything. So outwards went many players, including first-teamers; Caligiuri, Nicolini, Busch, Gardner, Zuiverloon and finally Babacar

Finances - If I keep raking in £100m+ on transfers each season, I think the picture won't be bleak for some time to come.

Confidence - Went down as far as 'Stable' during the low point of the season, but finishing high up gained my 'Untouchable' status back for now. Squad harmony still needs sorting out though...

Aims for next season: The board are now expecting a top 6 finish, so there can't be much repeat of our slow start to the season again. I think, once again, that we can challenge for the top 4; though we'll need to be consistent throughout the campaign, something we haven't since we've been in this divsion.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Merthyr Tydfll Season 3 2012/13 CCL2 - Promotion!!!

Well, the season began with me stating we would achieve midseason obscurity, and the first few matches seemed to confirm this.. But suddenly I ended up being first place with a 5-5-1 record.. Which brought a huge morale boost, and my lads kept on going, and could have been champions had they not drawn the last two games whilst being 2 up!

Particularily blooming was John Giudetti. on loan from Bolton. who managed to bag 30 league goals, and also turn top-scorer of CCL2

Next year League 1.. I will see what happens, but bank on mid-table for now, the reputation can't keep up with rapid promotion, nor can my budgets.

We started off the season in style. That result showed that we had what it takes to build on that performance and aim for the playoff's but we kicked on from there. We won promotion with 4 games to go and won the League on the last day of the season with a win away and we were confirmed as Champions.

My Squad (according to my ass man) needs a complete overhaul with three or four staying but will try and bring in a new ass man with a higher reputation to see how many players I need to get rid of come June 25th. My Finances are not looking too good so stadium revamp is out of the question. We did receive a payout for winning the league but as normal, i set my player bonuses to high to give my players motivation to win the league and the end of season payout is what put me in the red.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Local lad Joe Jordan, aged 33, has recently taken charge at Bridge Avenue to tackle the challenge at AFC Hornchurch. He expressed his delight at gaining the job, and even uttered the words: "I will take this team, eventually, to the Premier League and Champions League glory and put Hornchurch on the footballing map!"
By the looks of things, he's off his rocker...surely?

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Wallace, Spinelli and Pablo were rather speculative punts from free transfers, and only Wallace really proved his worth this season. Miranda and Spinelli proved very profitable and I certainly didn't miss them, while John-Joe O'Toole was re-signed desperately in order to give some much needed bite to our midfield. Pedro and the loan signings contributed little.

Nick Warren was an embarassing misplaced investment, but I was gutted to lose Kroonstrom especially because we didn't pick up a fee for a player I really rate. Reynaldo was reluctant to stay and so I tried to cash in his value, but as a 30+ years old player with an expiring contract I had to flog him on the cheap. De Jong, King and the enigmatic Bustamente showed little to convince me of a contract extension.

The Season!

Back in the Championship I was hoping to make a strong start and we just that as perennial whipping boys Doncaster and Plymouth were spanked 4-0 and 3-1 consecutively, Karakas already bagging 4 goals. A drab 0-0 draw with Peterborough felt bizarre considering our presence up front, but this proved to be no exception as we lost three games in a row with just one goal to our names; the 4-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace being the lowlight of this run. Balance was restored somewhat with 3-2 and 4-1 wins over relegation battles Norwich and Swansea, but it was beginning to feel like we only performed as a team whenever Karakas was scoring.

That theory was proved somewhat as he scored in scoring draws either side of a 4-0 drubbing at Sheffield United; he scored in the next game at Coventry but we still lost inexplicably 3-1 despite dominating the game and being 1-0 with ten minutes remaining. A second frustrating away defeat followed at Southampton. Whenever we didn't feed 'The Kraken', we didn't get a result. An always tricky Mansfield side were edged past 2-1 at the Oxford City Stadium. Home seemed to be where the heart was as we could only manage a draw at a disappointing Middlesborough, and for the 7th game in a row we only scored as a team when Karakas did, but Kroos was looking useful in a supporting role. Until he got injured, and Ozturk joined in the goalscoring fun against Brighton who were stuffed 4-1. As November began, our previous talisman David Hoilett was playing terribly, our league position did not reflect our ability and the squad was in disarray because they knew it themselves. And so, after a close defeat at a very strong Ipswich side, they decided to pull their finger out and do something about it.

Milwall were smashed 6-1 in their own back yard, and Blackburn, Leicester and Bristol City saw 4, 3 and 5 goals go past them without reply; Michael Ozturk looked simply unplayable. Our 1-0 home win and 2-0 away win against Doncaster were much narrower, and we looked very fatigued against a poor Plymouth side, Pilar's last minute free kick giving us our 7th win a row. That's where the run ended though, as Peterborough hammered us 3-0 at London Road, but we showed good character to beat a disciplined Barnsley side 2-0. A rot set in with 5 games winless, but once again facing a poor Swansea side allowed us to take advantage, securing a decent 3-1 win in Wales. Once again a vital home game with Leeds would shape our season, and once again we came out victorious but only 2-1 this time, the crucial goals coming from the talismanic Karakas and Barile. Ozturk's fine brace sent another Yorkshire side packing, Sheffield United, in the same week. Another sojourn into sunny Wales ended in gloom, as Mark McGarry's magnificent hat-trick sent us back with our tails between our legs.

6 points were vital against the very beatable Southampton and Mansfield but we only managed 1; we made up for this somewhat as Jacopo Barile struck an unbelievable brace to vanquish Middlesborough 2-1, and our next game at Brighton was a thriller for the neutral - 4-4 it finished, but 3 points would have been so beneficial to our late play-off charge. Luckily, a 1-0 Karakas game against Milwall followed a useful point at Milwall, but despite Ozturk's best efforts we fell to defeat at Blackburn. We lost at home to Ipswich 1-0, and our destiny was out of our hands.
We finished the season in a strong position, winning successive tough games against Bristol City and Forest. Going into the last game of the season at home to Stoke, we had to beat them and hope Leeds lost. Early goals from Ozturk and Pilar put us firmly on top as Leeds trailed early on; but eventually they rallied to win the game and yet another season in the Championship awaited us.

Aim for next season to survive naturally. Wouldnt mind a parent club that could send a solid keeper and winger. Hope to gain some sort of cash, so far cash in the season was from playing high rep teams in off season, and it gradually decreased as the season came along.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Had to decide between Spain or England for national team manager. I have more players capable of playing internationally for Spain ATM as most of my English players are youth. Euro 2020 just finished with both in the final and WC in 2 years. Both teams have easy qualifiers. Decided to go for Spain now. Will try for England when I get more England worthy players.
Oh and I seem to be picking up a few wonderkids now. IIRC I have 4. One a Spanish RB, one a South African AMC and another a Brazilian ST. While there's also an English DC.
I also fired my AssMan. Promoted a youth coach. Hired my former AssMan as that for my Spanish job. If he doesn't get another job I'll keep hiring him as such for whichever national team I'm managing. Been with me since League One I think so feel like keeping employed for his awesome service. Just needed a bit of freshening at the club.

Transfers - I continued to do my best to poach promising youngsters, whilst I had another clear out this time it was wage costs that resulted in me needing to get rid of players; page2 and page3 resulting in another £100m worth of sales.

Community Shield - we started the season off by just about retaining the Community Shield.

Premier League - We were unstoppable in the League this season, despite getting off to a slow start we thrashed Man City 4-1 in our second game, but once we got going we were unstoppable winning 15 games in a row between October and January beating Arsenal's record that had stood since 2002, during that run I claimed my 500th win at Nantwich, we also thrashed Chelsea 6-1 before we suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Arsenal, but a 4-1 win over Liverpool in my 1,000th game all but confirmed the title, though a shock 3-1 defeat to Watford and Man City never seeming to play meant the title wasn't secured until we had four games left. Our 94pt haul was also a new record beating the 85pts claimed by Liverpool in the first season (we actually already had 85pts by the time the league had been won).

Man Utd didn't have a great return to the Premier League as they went straight back down despite spending £121m including a record £53m on Everton Winger/Striker Watson, who I tried to get but he wanted £180K p/w which is well outside my reach.

Champions League Group - The table looks closer than it was, we opened up with strong victories over Olympiakos and Metalist before suffering a shock defeat to Bordeaux in France before winning our three remaining games to finish top.

In the First Knockout Round we would return to Italy this time to face Inter Milan for the first time, and an excellent performance in the First Leg saw us return home with a 4-1 win, in the Second Leg we got off to an awful start failing 2-0 down within 8 minutes however that woke us up and Inter got nowhere near to getting the five goals they needed.

In the Quarter Finals we would yet again face Barcelona who haven't actually managed to beat us yet, and their luck wasn't about to change as we claimed a comfortable 3-0 win in the First Leg at home, though it did help that for some reason our tie was played on the same day as most non-European National Teams played a friendly, that our players couldn't be removed from leaving Barcelona with several key players missing compared to my two wingers. In the Second Leg Barcelona were finished off within 20 mins as we went 2-0 up requiring Barcelona to score six to go through, though they did come back to 2-2 as we let the foot off the gas.

In the Semi Final we would return to Spain this time to face At. Madrid, the First Leg didn't exactly go to plan as we lost 2-1 and Sousa managed to get himself sent off moaning about Madrid's second goal, in the Second Leg we didn't mess around scoring two quick goals before finishing with a 5-1 win to send us through to the Final.

In the Final we would face yet another Spanish side this time Sevilla who knocked out Arsenal on away goals, whilst the final would also be in Spain at A.Madrid's old stadium. We were both looking for our first Champions League trophy it was our second final and Sevillas first.

The Final proved to be an easy game as we comfortably the better team and ran out 3-1 winners.

Carling Cup - Didn't go to plan as we lost to Liverpool in the Quarter Final.

FA Cup was even worse as we somehow lost to Peterborough in the Third Round.

Squad - We were quite lucky this season with regards to injuries only losing one or two players at a time instead of half my team. I also changed things around normaly I play my first XI in the league and important cup games with my second XI playing in the cups and Europe, I also use my second XI when we play twice a week in the league, whilst this keeps my players fit and happy and gives my young players experience it can result in a disjointed side especially when most of my second string are inexperienced, so this season I tried to play the same XI in as many games as possible in the League and Europe, keeping my players fit by subbing tired players and giving them a day or two of rest after each game, and it seemed to work as we broke several records this season, though not being forced to field third and fourth choice players may have helped as well.

At right back Pedro Leite returned to form putting in some fine performances this season, whilst his understudy Cledson didn't have the best season. On the left Ricardo Jimenez Garcia became first choice with a solid season which left Airam Barba to provide cover.

In the Centre of Defence I still struggled to find a new partnership whilst Ian Thomas was on form this season and he was named Third best player in the Champions League, though finding him a partner is proving to be rather difficult, I've hopefully solved my problems with the signing of Norwegian Terje Amundsen who had a good first season and even became a wonderkid at the end of the season, however he is proving to be rather injury prone and that isn't a good sign, cover was provided by Scottish youngster Ross Charlesworth who has potential but isn't quite ready yet and promising English Defender Michael Moss who showed glimpses of his potential and was rewarded with a shock England call-up.

I don't know if it's just me but Centre-backs and Keepers seem to be the hardest players to get to develop, my young strikers and midfielders are developing nicely, but my Young Keepers and Defenders don't seem to be developing as quickly.

In Midfield Alessandro Tufano had an excellent season on the right wing scoring aswell as creating goals, covering him was Brazilian Eduardo who had a poor season, whilst I gave my latest Academy player Richie Jenkins a couple of sub appearances and he can now play down either wing. On the left Dario was in good goalscoring form aswell with the opposite winger at times almost acting as a third striker, providing cover was fellow Brazilian Glaucio.

In the Centre of Midfield Ricardo Sousa had a solid season as my Deep-lying Playmaker, I still have no idea why all of a sudden he has started to pick up so many yellow cards, partnering him as my Box-to-Box Midfielder was Jerome Muraccioli who had an excellent season and had his most creative season so far.

Providing cover were four English Wonderkids but despite them all being highly rated none of them impressed in the Box-to-Box role so I was forced to change it to a MC support role, with Brett Stubbs impressing the most, whilst Kyle Herbert was just starting to find his feet before injury ended his season early and he somehow came third in English Young player of the Year behind my Striker Giles who was at loan and Chelsea and a Midfielder Wilson who I'd sold to Notts County, Elvis Kwame also struggled to get into the side with injuries limiting his appearances, whilst Jordan Charles became my latest Wonderkid and even got a couple of England caps but still didn't impress though at least this time he got a couple of assists.

Providing cover was highly rated English Striker Ryan Reeves who had an excellent season consider he spent most of it coming off the bench he even managed to be the Third Top Scorer in the Champions League, Academy player Geoff Grant also had a fine season however I have a slight problem with him - a couple of seasons ago a loan to Sheff Wed was bugged and whilst I got him back he is also at Sheff Wed which means his value and asking price keep on resetting to zero and his league appearances are getting wiped out at the end of the season and there doesn't appear to be any way to stop it happening

Finances - despite claiming both the Premier League and Champions League we would have lost £30m if it wasn't for me bringing in £80m with player sales, I really need a bigger stadium but my current ground cannot be expanded anymore and it is only 10 years old.

With the Champions League captured our reputation increases to Worldwide.

Finally with the Challenge complete I enter the realm of International Management as the Manager of Hungary

So I have a few plans for the future (well until FM11 is out);

- Break some records.
- Top the hall of fame.

- Get 100% Scouting Knowledge (though this never seems possible)
- Learn as many languages as possible.

Transfers/Squad;

- All Homegrown (20 out of registered 25 at the moment)
- All Academy/Feeder Club players.
- All Academy.
- All English.
- World Star from each area (already have Dario S.America, and Reeves Europe).

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Just looking at your squad you have 29 players who have all made appearances, I'm assuming the players outside of your EPL 25 are just cup games?

They'll be the odd dead games in the league aswell as the League Cup and Europe.

I haven't actually had a problem with the new Premier League Registration rules most of my team are under 21 and homegrown (the only annoyances are the always present HG icon and the lack of squad numbers) and I've never had to not register someone, though I do tend to sell anyone who is over 21 and not in my first 22.

That said things could be interesting at the end of the season I am currently in as it looks like I'll have 40 odd players 21 or over next season so it looks like another clear out is required.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Well this season has started off how the last one finished - I've just won my first 15 games scoring 44 goals conceeding just 7 - it has taken until 3rd Nov for Liverpool to become the first team to take points off me with a 0-0 draw and that was thanks to the ref wrongly disallowing a 95th minute strike.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Well, the season began with me stating we would achieve mid-table obscurity, and while the first two matches were a great start, we dropped quickly near the bottom of the table. only to turn around and start a great run to the top, when we had reached it, top goalscorer got injured for a few weeks, and never was the same again, having us barely grab the last play-off place in this very erratic season. The first round of play-offs went very well, winning 2-0 to Walsall at home, and 3-1 away, though the latter was helped by Walsall receiving a Red card after scoring the 0-1, my lads straightened there backs quickly and scored the equalizer, which sealed Walsall's failed bid for promotion.

We did win the JPT, as well as progress quite far in the FA cup. Alls this made for a Season turnover of almost a million! I'm currently contemplating whether to ask for Training/Youth boost or save up for stadium (As expansion is unfortunately not possible). I guess I will wait till there is more certainty, as it looks like a consortium takeover is going to take place.. Which hopefully will not take too long, atleast not put my whole summer under an embargo.

Next year I'm going for a promotion, hopefully needing to rely less on loan players as well.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

But Fulham were always so good in your save, and now they go down, and in administration, too! Is Hameur Bouzza your scout?

I don't know what happened to Fulham to send them into admin, I'm guessing it must be wages as they have a smaller ground than me. Though I've just noticed their manager was Ochoa at the start of the season who they fired and he then went and got Utd relegated, Fulham then appointed the Italy manager who was winning stuff with Italy but gets Fulham relegated. The 10 points they got is a new record low aswell.

And it is Hameur Bouzza who's my scout, I also have Boa Morte, Flamini, Prosinecki, Arthur Numan, Neil Lennon, Fulop and Vanden Borre on staff.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Looks like I am going to be busy in the second half of the season as thanks to the World Club Cup and random postponements I am four games behind everyone else, but still five points clear at the top of the table from both Newcastle and City who have played 19 games to my 15.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

SnakeXe's Tiverton Town - Season 6 - 2015/16Story of the Season:After some excellent transfer dealings, including bringing in Daniel Aquino - a genuinely talented winger - and Victor Palsson, a Champions League-experienced central midfielder, I was feeling optimistic for the season.

Some good early showings in our new 4-5-1 formation encouraged me, but some critical injuries meant we slipped down the table going into the New Year. An unlucky FA Cup exit to Liverpool after holding them for 75 minutes seemed to knock the wind out of us, and a run of 7 defeats from 8 dragged us into an unexpected relegation battle.

We were floundering slightly, and I have to admit I lost faith in my ability to turn it around, but I did just that with a change back to our 4-1-2-3 unleashing Daniel Aquino, firing in 4 wins from 5, to put us 3 points clear with 5 to play.

Of course, disaster struck and Aquino's hamstring snapped in training, leaving him out for the season and us with no replacement for his critical defence-stretching role.

A run of 1 point from the next 4 games meant we were stuck in the relegation zone going into the final weekend. We needed a win over Michael Owen's Wigan, whose season was effectively over, and other results to go our way in order to stay up.

We, of course, went 1-0 down early on after some shocking defending, and couldn't get a foot on the ball all half. Results elsewhere were in our favour, but we just couldn't get into the game.

The second half brought a slight bit of impetus, as I decided to go attacking, and we equalised with 20 minutes left. A second goal was needed though, and I threw everything at Wigan.

We didn't really create anything though, and even another 2 minutes over the allocated stoppage wasn't enough, as I suffered the first relegation of my FM career.

Chris Smalling, Daniel Aquino, and Oniforos Roushias were kind enough to greet me in the dressing room with transfer requests. I decided to accept them all.

Next Season:
Win the league, win the Paint Pot. Nothing else will do.

5 Most Important Players:
5. Victor Palsson MC - Stats-wise, probably the best player we've ever had on a permanent contract. It's just a shame he couldn't inspire us on the pitch, would have hoped for more from him
4. Omar Miguez AMC - His stats make him look like just a pace merchant, but was actually an assured presence in the midfield, and our leading assist-maker
3. Daniel Aquino AML/ST - If he hadn't twanged his hamstring we definitely would have stayed up, as he inspired us to that run of 4 wins from 5 beforehand. Would have been above Anichebe in this list if he hadn't handed in a transfer request immediately following relegation
2. Victor Anichebe ST - Top scorer yet again but with only 8 goals this time in a season blighted by injury. Perhaps if he'd been fitter more often we'd have stayed up
1. Chris SmallingDC - Another great season from the man, but not quite enough unfortunately. Has handed in a transfer request and better sides are sniffing around, so he'll probably be off for a couple of million

FA Cup - we didn't concede a goal until the final, where ex player Edward Graham scored twice to beat us.

UEFA Champions League - it was an easy group followed by a dominant display in the knockout stages but the highlight was the final. 2-1 down and loooking out of it, a last gasp free kick to it to extra time where we won on penalties.

Squad - the squad is getting stronger and stronger and it is nice to see some highly valued players once again.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Originally Posted by dafuge

It was £40m spread over 48 months and another £40m after 30 league goals. Teams seem to bid loads more if you avoid asking for the money up front.

Ahh I'll have to give that a go! Finally got my youth facilities up to "State-of-the-art Facilities Plus Youth Academy" so I'll hopefully be selling off the big names and blending some academy graduates in from next season

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Originally Posted by dafuge

It was £40m spread over 48 months and another £40m after 30 league goals. Teams seem to bid loads more if you avoid asking for the money up front.

Are you offering players out like that, or are you negotiating bids you recieve, as whenever I offer someone out the game seems to change the amount I offer the player for, most of the time it seems to reset to twice the players value regardless of what I ask for.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Originally Posted by michaeltmurrayuk

Are you offering players out like that, or are you negotiating bids you recieve, as whenever I offer someone out the game seems to change the amount I offer the player for, most of the time it seems to reset to twice the players value regardless of what I ask for.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

After leaving Merthyr i went to the previously unpromoted Stocksbridge to see if as a world class manager i could get them to the top any quicker than Merthyr.
With 500K in the bank and 86K transfer fund, i was made 3rd favourite with the bookies.
I abandoned my usual 442 and played a 442 diamond instead, it took a while to get the formation and players right but the team soon picked up to be right in the title mix. Unfortunately they ran out of steam to finish 2nd. In the playoffs i lost the first leg 3-1 and so attacked from the start in the 2nd leg. After getting in front i conceeded a last minute goal and further goals in ET to lose out.
I went out to L2 Gateshead in the FA cup and to Ossett Town in the FA trophy.

TransfersFree transfers came in and i spent the transfer fund on wages. Made a good profit on Allison who had mostly featured as a sub.

My defence was solid but my strikers were not prolific enough.
Huitema's experience and skill were influencial.

Star player - I have a 3/4 bar of brazilian knowledge, a result either from my time as brazil manager or from the number of brazilian players signed while at Merthyr. As a result of this i trialled this player after he appeared on the player search screen. I am training him from scratch as an AMC, he is up to competant at the end of the season and his performances were getting better.

Merthyr update: in my absence Merthyr retained the premier league title

Started ok but the strikers kept missing too many chances so slipped down the league. Managed to sign Alex and put a winning streak together to go top, fought Ossett Town for the rest of the season down to the last game when i overtook them after briefly slipping up.
Made no impact in the FA cup going out to Buxton . In the FA trophy i went all the way to the final. Facing BSP Blackpool i was outplayed for much of the match before a devasting late spell.
The finances are looking pretty desperate as they are now at about 100K, attendances of just 250 are not helping.

My defence probably wasn't as solid as it could have been with not enough clean sheets.
Mkhinze got a lot of goals from the bench.Emilio is now a natural at AMC and it showed with an astonishing number of goals, many from long range and assists.Pulis doesn't look great but he scored loads along with Alex

Star Player - Again signed after a trial, he is simply too good for this league. My coaches rate him as good or leading premiership standard which i think is a bit over the top.

Merthyr update: Could only finish 4th but won the league cup and lost in the CL final

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

This is interesting everyone of my games in the first half of the season is on TV bar the Man Utd and West Ham games, and it looks like they are only not on TV due to them being Tuesday games, which means I'm not playing at 3pm once in the first half of the season

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Maidstone - 2020-2025 - Premier League

So been far to long since my last update and that was partly due to me going back as there was a history problem and me just wanting to crack on with the game. I am now back in a position similar to that I left the team however second time round it has taken me to 2025. This is due to me experimenting tactically and trying to move away from lone striker formation.

2020/21
So I did better than the previous year finishing in 6th place and grabbing myself some European football

2021/22
I knew which players to sign this summer and so my squad was good enough to win the league, was also a rather poor championship.

2022/23
My squad was to young this year and struggled into 4th but I picked up the UEFA cup after crashing out of the group stages. My first top flight cup on this restart.

2023/24
A close call this season I don't actually remember much apart from my squad is starting to mature and ready to dominate England and Europe.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Merthyr Tydfil Season 5 2014/15 CCL1 -JPT Winners, League Champions!

Well, the season sarted well: Transfer embargo Half July.. Luckily I had already made some nice Loan signings, like Stella and Pestana, Because the embargo only got lifted on April 11th, next year with the takeover attempt collapsed.

By then it was already obvious I was going to promote, and likely as champions. We didn't do so well in FA Cup or League cup, but did manage to win JPT, to make for an excellent season.

Next year I aimed for preservation, but I'm already quite for in, and can tell you play-offs are still on the card, though it will be a battle. Board Takeover finally took place, after yet another failed attempt, in December, with the chairman considering to replace me, but luckily deciding against it!

Transfers and page2 - signings were limited to promising youngsters, whilst I had a small clear out all three young Dutch Strikers were sold and I even managed to get an Israeli side pay nearly £9m for one of them, right back Cledson was sold to Madrid for a record £25m (I would have got more but that's all the money they had) after he wanted too much money to sit on the bench, not that that record lasted for long as in Jan third choice left winger Luis Eduardo started to moan and was sold to CSKA for £28.5m (though the game went and injured Dario for the rest of the season after I sold Luis).

So without any new signings we got off to a fantastic start this season (for a change) winning our first 15 games in all competitions and going 33 games (Middle of Jan) unbeaten (should be 38 and 20 but for some reason the run restarts at the start of the season?)

We retained the Community Shield for a record third year in a row with a record 4-0 win over Chelsea, we also captured the European Super Cup for the first time with a 1-0 win over Roma.

In December we went to the US and one the World Club Cup, though we made hard work of it beating LA Galaxy in the Semi-Final before just about beating Boca in the Final.

Premier League - Arsenal pushed us all the way this season when we really should have had the league in the bag months ago - at the turn of the year with a win over title rivals Newcastle we were 7pts clear of Man City have played four less games, and 8pts clear of Arsenal having played one less game, however losing to Arsenal twice in the space of a month (our first two defeats this season) didn't help us and with Arsenal catching their games up first they managed to leap frog us in the league, losing it in March didn't help either as we lost badly to Spurs, Sunderland and Notts County, but thrashed Ipswich and WBA inbetween though the injuries start to add up, going into the last few games a makeshift side could only draw 0-0 to Man City leaving us 1pt clear with three games to go and having beaten Coventry (2-0) and Bolton (5-0) we would face Spurs in the final game still 1pt clear, thankfully we turned up and got revenge with a 5-0 win with Muraccioli scoring a surprise hat-trick that secured the title. I would really sorry for Arsenal if I like them considering in any season apart from the last two they would have comfortable won the league.

We got a nice easy Group Draw this season facing Sporting, Panathinaikos and Rubin and walked the group with six wins from six games.

In the Knockout Round we faced Dutch Side AZ and claimed a 3-1 First Leg win in Holland, in the Second Leg we suffered a slight scare due to some poor defending on two corners but in the end managed to claim a 4-2 win.

In the Quarter Final we faced Werder Bremen who had thankfully just knocked Real Madrid out, with the First Leg at Home four second half goals we enough to claim a comfortable victory, in the Second Leg with important games coming thick and fast I fielded a weakended side that we unlucky to lose 1-0.

In the Semi-Final we'd face our first Spanish side of the season in Valencia and despite conceeding an early goal in the First Leg we proved to strong and claimed a solid 4-1 win which allowed me to field a weakened side in the Second Leg and they did me proud winning 4-1 thanks to a hat-trick from Danny Giles.

In the Final we faced Inter but despite taking a 2-0 lead we managed to throw the game with some wasteful finishing and a couple of awful pens allowed Inter to win the Champions League on pens

Carling Cup - We finally reclaimed the Carling Cup after a five year wait an easy run to the final was finished with a comfortable 3-1 win over Man City in the Final.

FA Cup - We suffered an embrassing defeat to League One Sheff Wed in the Fifth Round, allowing Arsenal to win the FA Cup with a win over Championship side Hull in the final.

In goal Tahan Kodalak had another fine season being named the Second Best Keeper in Europe, though he is now thinking about retiring so hopefully one of my promising young English Keepers will start to impress, Jeff Edwards is the best of the bunch but he isn't really improving.

In the centre of Defence Ian Thomas had a mixed season, getting a 3 rating in one match didn't help his overall rating, however when he was partnered with Norwegian Wonderkid Terje Amundsen we were solid at the back, the problem is Amundsen is rather injury prone, though that didn't stop him from being named English Young Player of the Year, not that their seemed to be much competition this season, providing cover was Italian Fabiano D'Angelo who did well but we just don't seem that solid when he plays, whilst his partner for backup Michael Moss didn't have the best of seasons.

On the Right Wing Italian Alessandro Tufano was in fantastic form and was named English Player of the Year, providing cover was the Brazilian Eduardo and my Academy player Richie Jenkins who had an excellent season considering he was used mainly as a sub. On the Left Dario was made my Captain this season and he had a quite season until he was injured in the Arsenal game that saw him miss the second half of the season and the World Cup, thankfully his understudy Glaucio was in fine form so he wasn't badly missed.

In the Centre of Midfield Vice-Captain Ricardo Sousa had his best season yet as he bossed the midfield as my Playmaker and was named Third in English Player of the Year, his partner Jerome Muraccioli was also a creative force, though a loss of form through the middle of the season nearly proved costly. Providing cover again were my four English Wonderkids though I am still trying to work out which role suits each of them best, Kyle Herbert stepped up this season with some good performances, Brett Stubbs also did well until injury meant he lost his place to Elvis Kwame who put in some good performances.

Upfront Spanish Striker Inaki Zelaia turned provider this time grabbing a club record 23 assists and a Premier League Record 19 assists, his partner this year was English Striker Ryan Reeves who was redeployed as my Advanced Forward and he was on fire scoring a Nantwich Record 32 goals and a record 26 League goals, beating the records set by Zelaia just last season, his value also shot upto £34.5m which makes him the most valued player on the game , he was also named Fans Player of the Year. Reeves and Zelaia also finished Second and Third for English Footballer of the Year and European Striker of the Year, Reeves was also the Second Highest Scorer in the League again just behind Arsenal Striker Martins who joined them for a club record £33.5m in the summer. Providing cover were experienced Strikers Antonio Costa, Frank Schmidt and Geoff Grant aswell as Wonderkid Danny Giles who did well when called upon.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

International - Hungary 2029/30

With the Challenge complete I accepted the Hungary job when offered it.

World Cup Qual Group 5 - I started off in Third place and finished in Third, we just about beat Lativa and Romania, but could only draw to Armenia and then narrowly lost to both Germany and Russia, though even if we beat Germany and Russia we still wouldn't have gone through unless we won both games big.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

This is typical the four players with potential I've been given this season are three left wingers and a left wing back, well at least it means I should be sorted on the left for the future now, I wouldn't have minded them to be spread across a couple of positions though.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Picking a side with the better reputation, stadium and facilities will give you a slight advantage, though I tend to pick my side on their location and kit colours (and most important how easy it is for them to ever get promoted).

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Originally Posted by SJ234

Sorted it, any recomendations on who to start as?

I was FC United, and they start off with an 11000 capacity all-seater (groundshare with Bury), no debt and a pretty generous Chairman. Or you could go down the more difficult route of a team with a terrible stadium that you'll need to upgrade, etc.

Re: dafuge's FM10 challenge

Originally Posted by TacticalGenius

I was FC United, and they start off with an 11000 capacity all-seater (groundshare with Bury), no debt and a pretty generous Chairman. Or you could go down the more difficult route of a team with a terrible stadium that you'll need to upgrade, etc.

Did them last year, Methyr is my choice will do the screenie in the morning.